Day: April 6, 2006

What worries Matt McAlister about the term ‘Web 2.0’: (You go, brother.) “Of course, the name “Web 2.0″ was coined by a geek for geeks. It turns out that it’s still too opaque for most people to understand….I’m hoping the naming muddle will keep people confused long enough for a few more breakthroughs to put a few more startups safely into profitability before the backlash starts to have a real impact.”

Podcasting’s pundits suffer from macro-myopia: For as long as there has been a rexblog, I’ve been crediting Paul Saffo with helping me understand the phenomenon he calls “macro-myopia.” (Last year, he e-mailed me this background on the concept.) In short, for the past hundred years or so, wonks who study “technology diffusion” have observed that folks always tend to “overestimate short-term effects and under-estimate long-term implications of emergent technological change.”

There will surely be a “bust” of financial expectations related to podcasting (such is the law of macro-myopia), however, there is no way that 18 months after the word “podcasts” returned only 24 results on Google, that anyone’s research about its “acceptance” means anything about the longterm impact of those “notions” and “platforms” that combine to form the metaphor of podcasting.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. From day one, I’ve been ranting that podcasting shouldn’t be considered a “programming format” or use mass media metrics or metaphors. Sure, the early podcasts sounded like radio shows, but sharing audio is something we do all day long via the phone and I don’t have an opening theme-song before each phone conversation.

I believe podcasting’s greatest impact will be as a personal medium for small groups — as small as two. While they wisely do not use the word “podcasting” anywhere on the site and are, indeed, NOT podcasting, the dynamics of what is taking place at YackPack is where I think time-shifiting and sharing audio may be heading (watch their screencast “video demo” to get the idea). Again, I am not applying the term “podcasting” to what they’re doing — because it’s not — but clear your mind of “programming” metaphors and think conversations and what they’re doing at YackPack can help you understand the difference between personal media (conversation) and mass media (programming) as it relates to time-shifted audio files. Okay, you are now allowed to connect the dots between conversations and podcasting.

To quote myself, bottom line (as I will continue to repeat this again and again, no doubt): “Before the coming podcasting boom and bust, it was just a grassroots notion. Before we cycle through the inevetiable macro-myopic journey of over-expectation and disappointment, I want to say once more that podcasting is going to greatly disappoint lots of people who think it’s about the money.” But what podcasting will eventually lead to is way beyond our minds’ grasps.

Tear it down and build a theme park:My friend Mark Oldham notes a developing story that’s getting little press in Nashville, but could have significant impact here: the parent company of Opry Mills is under formal investigation by the SEC and the company is trimming jobs and scaling back projects. Says Mark: “We’ve had enough drama out there in the Opryland area in the last 10 years. Let’s hope this is nothing but a debits and credits issue and that the company is just in a little bit of a pothole right now.”

Celebrate Tartan Day: Today is Tartan Day in North America. The event’s biggest backers (translation: Glenfiddich) would like April 6 to be for the Scottish diaspora what St. Patrick’s Day is for Irish Americans. Sounds like a great idea to me. If you’re in New York, there’s a parade. And there are other celebrations around the country, as well. But if, like me, you’re not able to make it to one of those, here are the top five things you can do to celebrate Tartan Day right here on the Internet:

5. Check out some Scottish bloggers.4. Listen to some Scottish podcasts (and note that Scottish podcast clan logo — I believe it dates back to the Middle Ages, when the Scots invented podcasting).3. Speaking of podcasts, I haven’t listened, but I couldn’t help but recommend the best-named podcast for Tartan Day: “Wetootwaag’s Podcast of Bagpipe Power.”2. Bagpipes aren’t your thing? Annie Lennox works. Average White Band doesn’t.1. Kiss someone who uses a Macintosh. (Note: the tartan above belongs to the Macintosh clan.)

But seriously. If you’d like to hear some beautiful Scottish fiddle music, anything by the American Scottish fiddler, Bonnie Rideout, is a great place to start. (Or “for the real thing” — says an emailer — Alisdair Fraser.) Also, if you’d like to get in touch with your Scottish roots, I recommend the book, How the Scots Invented the Modern World, by Arthur Herman. And, finally, why April 6? It’s the anniversary of the the Declaration of Abroath in 1320, a Scottish declaration of independence.

Launched in August, 2000, RexBlog.com is the personal blog of Rex Hammock, founder/ceo of Hammock Inc., a customer media and marketing services company founded in 1991 in Nashville. Rex is also founder/helper-in-chief of SmallBusiness.com.(...)